Chapter 124
JESSICA
“Keep still,” Riot whispers as I jerk one more time trying to stop him from tying me up. “Or I’ll fuck you right here. Choose.”
My eyes widened and despite wanting to just kill him right there, I stop, too fucking scared he’ll do what he says.
His palm lingers a second longer than necessary, pressing into me like he’s mapping the shape of my breath, then he steps back. Rope burns down the edge of my forearms. My boots can’t quite brace on the uneven ground, and the stretch has me off balance, spine bowed, ribs pulled wide. Every part of me is exposed.
Riot crouches, ripping something from his belt. Tarp. Clothes. Another rope.
I grind my teeth so hard my jaw clicks. My hands twist in the bindings, but the knot holds–high, harsh, locked against a knot in the trunk behind me. I count five deep breaths before he speaks again.
“You’re smart enough not to scream,” he says absently, threading something through the loop of his belt like he’s bored. “But just in case…”
He moves closer. One step, then another. The tarp gets tossed aside. He brings out a strip of cloth. Black. Smells like leather and blood and something that might’ve once been mine.
“Open your mouth.”
“No.”
His eyes flick up. No smile this time. Just that stillness. That quiet, hungry, patient Alpha stillness that coils in his shoulders right before he snaps someone’s neck.
He grabs my jaw. Shoves fingers into my mouth, hard. I choke, gag, bite down–and he lets me. Just waits with his thumb hooked under my tongue like he’s taming me.
“I said–open.”
I hold his stare. My lip curls. But I open. Just enough. Just to breathe.
The gag shoves past my teeth rough. He ties it hard at the base of my skull. It’s not tight enough to choke–but it’s not for that. It’s to silence me. It’s to humiliate,
He steps back, eyes dragging over me,
“Better,” Riot murmurs, voice gravel–soft. “Now I can focus.”
He starts dragging branches. A few long ones first, snapped underfoot, shoved into the dirt to create some kind of structure. Then fabric. He stretches the tarp low over two points, pins the corners down with rocks, kicks away anything sharp or noisy beneath it.
I don’t fucking let him win.
He circles again like he’s not done playing, like this is just a warm–up round. I watch his boots crush sticks, push dirt, mark up the ground like a wolf pissing borders. He’s claiming shit that doesn’t belong to him. Building himself a kingdom with bark and blood and my fucking silence.
1/4
Chapter 124
My teeth grind. I want to tear out the rope. Want to rip through it with my wrists, my teeth, my rage, I don’t fucking care. If I had claws, I’d gut him. If I had my wolf, I’d rip open his throat and leave him twitching in his own nest.
But I don’t.
So I breathe. And taste leather and dirt and spit and the sour rot of whatever he used this gag for last. It’s not clean. I don’t think he gives a shit. Probably likes it that way. Probably wants me to marinate in it. Wants it soaked with my breath so when he rips it out, he can fucking smell that I obeyed.
Riot doesn’t speak again until he’s finished. Until there’s a place for him to sleep. For him to rest. For him to drag me into if he
wants.
When he does walk over, it’s slow.
His fingers skim my waist. My thigh. Then trace the rope again, right where it bruises me.
“You’ll get used to it,” Riot murmurs, almost sweet.
He leans in, mouth right at my jaw, breath sticky against my skin, and I turn my face away just to deny him that satisfaction.
I lunge. Hard. My shoulder rips against the bark. Skin goes raw. I don’t care.
He turns. Calm. Too calm.
“You’re wasting your energy,” he says. “No one’s coming.”
I snarl. Muffled. Animals.
“Yeah. There she is.” His voice gets low.
“I’ll gut you,” I try to say, but it’s fucked through the gag. It comes out wet and ugly and swallowed.
“You gonna say Grayson again?” Riot says, stepping in, too close. “Think that’ll save you this time?”
I freeze. Just one second. Just enough for him to see it.
“Thought so.” He tilts his head, eyes glittering. “Funny thing about mates–when you don’t mark ‘em, they die just like anyone else.”
My chest heaves. My spine bows tight again, breath stuttering like it’s too fucking cold now.
He leans in. Touches the side of my neck like he’s checking for the mark that’s not there. Just skin. Just skin and blood and the memory of a bite that never happened.
“Too bad,” he whispers. “Could’ve kept you.“/
I spit through the gag. Hits his cheek.
He smiles wider.
Then–hand in my hair. Fast. Rips my head back till my throat’s bared and every muscle in my body lights up trying not to scream.
“I want you to remember this, bitch,” Riot breathes against my face, “when you’re praying for him and no one fucking comes.”
2/4
+25
Chapter 124
“You think he’d save you now?” His voice is low, playful, coaxing. “Where do you think they are now Jessica?”
I don’t want to think about it, but I do. I do. I suddenly get scared. Grayson.
No…no. That can’t be.
Grayson and Pierce would never be fooled with Riot’s plans. He laughed cruelly and bit the side of my ear before I felt him move away, letting me suffer from his words.
“Bet they walked right into it,” Riot whispers. “Your pack’s not special. Your brother thinks he’s clever, but he’s just another little soldier playing Alpha. And Grayson-” He clicks his tongue. “Poor, dumb, meat–brained Grayson. I bet he thought he was marching into war. Whole chest puffed out like he could actually win.”
I shut my eyes. Just for a second. Just to stop the burn. Just to stop the image of him–Grayson, cocky and snarling, getting dragged under because I wasn’t there. Because I was here. Because Riot knew how to play us both.
“You don’t feel him, do you?” Riot breathes. “That’s what I thought.”
Something inside me seizes.
He steps back a half–inch, just to watch it hit.
“Maybe he’s already dead,” Riot murmurs. “Maybe he’s lying somewhere in the dirt, ribs split open, eyes gone blank, and you’ll never know because he was too stupid to mark you.”
I can’t breathe.
I can’t fucking breathe.
Riot crouches again.
Smiling.
Watching me shatter.
“Aw. That’s cute,” he says. “You still thought he’d come. You really believed that, didn’t you?”
My hands twist in the ropes so hard I feel skin split. My wrists are slick. Blood or sweat–I don’t know. I just know I’m shaking and I can’t make it stop.
“Look at you.” He tilts his head. “You’re already grieving.”
“F–fuck you,” I try. The gag makes it a mess. A sob. A sound I can’t stand.
He leans forward and licks the sweat off my neck. “Fuck me?” he repeats, amused. “No, Jess. That’s not how this works.” He taps the center of my chest with two fingers. Right where my heart tries to punch its way out of my body. “You gave yourself to a wolf who couldn’t even claim you. You picked the one dumb mutt in the whole pack too scared to mark what was his.”
My vision’s a mess, blurred with hot tears I didn’t mean to spill, and I blink fast, fast, like that’ll stop it, like that’ll make me strong again.
“You’re crying?” he says, voice dropping low, almost gentle. Mocking. “Now? Oh, sweetheart…”
He grabs the gag, ripping it off me. The strap snaps back behind my head and I suck in air so fast it chokes me. I’m crying harder.
3/4
09:04 Tue, 2 Sept
Chapter 124
now.
༣ས
89%1
25
I’m still chasing my breath when Riot’s lips suddenly crash into mine. My head jerks from the force and I try to pull back, but there’s nowhere to go when his hands are fisting on my hair.
I make a sound—shaky, raw, too close to a sob–and it only fuels him. His fingers clamp down on my jaw, rough and bruising, forcing it wider like he’s prying me open for him. Like my mouth’s just another hole to own. My cry warps into a gasp, sharp and helpless, right as his tongue slams into mine–deeper, sloppier, brutal.
When he finally tears away, I’m shaking. Gasping. Lip bleeding. He just watches. Thumb tracing the corner of my mouth. Possessive. Filthy.
“Now that,” Riot breathes, low and wrecked, “might even get me through the night. Behave Jess or I’ll bury you next to Grayson.”
